The Pole(s): Coetzee and Others

Taking J.M. Coetzee’s 2023 novel ‘The Pole’ as its main point of departure, this groundbreaking monograph investigates South Africa’s multifaceted engagement and dialogue with Poland and its literary production, visual culture, and history in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Bringing together sixteen chapters by world-renowned academics, including some of the major luminaries of postcolonial theory and Coetzee scholarship, the volume traces the genealogies of this dialogue. The contributions identify significant aesthetic, political, affective, and identity-related parallels between Poland and South Africa. They provide insights into the effects and motives for establishing transnational artistic and cultural alliances across the north-south/east-west divide, as well as study how South Africans have understood, perceived, and conceptualised Poland over the decades. Of special interest to this volume is Poland’s role in shaping South African cultural production and its appeal to a number of iconic South African writers – most notably, the Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee. It also explores how the Poles have contributed to South African cultural, social, and political life over the last century and today.